The Reasons Why We Dance

1. As a choreographer, I get asked to share my opinion about a myriad of dance-related
2. topics, from the practical, like “How can dance help you get in shape?” to the existential, like “Is
3. my dancing a projection of my self-image?”. But the question I think matters most is: why do
4. people dance? What is about moving our bodies to a song we love that is so joyfully Pavlovian?
5. Why do we watch videos and take lessons on something that could be labeled as trivial? Why do
6. we love it so?
7. There are the obvious answers. We dance for physical fitness, mental clarity, emotional
8. stability, and other such pluses. However, all these benefits could be attained by other means –
9. though I confess I have yet to find a better alternative than a great “cha cha”* to lift both one’s
10. heart rate and spirits. There must be something glorious about dancing that is more than just
11. intangible. We cannot seem to explain it, yet we all know it so well that we do not hesitate to
12. tap our feet to a Gershwin melody or pulse with the percussion of a samba rhythm.
13. Perhaps dance is the way we express ourselves when words are insufficient. The joy we
14. feel over newfound love, the determination we have in the face of great sorrow or adversity, the
15. passionate fire of our youth, and the peacefulness of our softer and more graceful years – maybe
16. they are never expressed more fully than through a waltz, or a tango, or a jive. We all want to
17. be understood, and if we could truly speak the words that describe our feelings, how deep and
18. powerful they would surely be. But alas, those words never seem to come to us just right. Maybe
19. dance is simply a translator for the human heart.
20. Perhaps dance is the medium through which we show the world who we truly are and who
21. we can be. All of us, if we are honest, believe deep down that we are not ordinary. We know
22. ourselves to be wonderfully unique, with many layers of personality and talent woven in such a
23. way that no one on earth could possibly have our same make-up. We know it. We just do not
24. always know how to prove it. Maybe dance gives us the opportunity. And perhaps dance is how
25. we choose to remember, how we hold on to the past. It is how we relive __ fun-filled days of
26. our youth or __ time we looked into their eyes and knew they were the one. It is our tribute to
27. the heroes of yesterday who jitterbugged like carefree boys and girls, when tomorrow they would
28. march as men and women to defend freedom’s cause. It is the chance to be __ princess again,
29. waiting for __ outstretched hand and the call to __ romance that is graceful, true, and not as
30. forgotten as the cynics say. When we dance, we can remember them all a little better, feel the
31. butterflies once again, and if only for a moment, return to the purest part of our lives when time
32. was of no matter…for we were dancing.
33. Why do we dance? Every answer will be different, and that is as it should be. Perhaps the
34. better question is, “Why would we not?”

*Cha Cha: an energetic modern dance.

(Available in: https://dancewithmeusa.com/why-we-dance-the-reasons/ – text especially adapted for this test).